Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore
This is the final book in Kristin Cashore's 7 Kingdoms trilogy. It's a young adult fantasy series that inludes the books GRACELING, FIRE, and today's entry, BITTERBLUE. Each of the 3 books follows a young female protagonist learning to grow up in the dangerous world around her. GRACELING introduces us to the world of the 7 kingdoms where some people are born with special abilities called graces. In the first book, we meet Katsa, a young girl with the grace of killing. Book two, FIRE, introduces us to a strange land beyond the 7 Kingdoms, The Dells. Instead of graces, the Dells is a land of monsters, brightly colored animals that have special power over other creatures. It is there we meet FIRE, the last human monster in the world. Why am I bringing this up? Because while the first two books give us heroines with fantastic powers, the third book gives us our first (relatively) normal heroine, Queen Bitterblue. Before I get into spoilers, just know that all three books are fantastic, and you should go read them. They're even better than the Hunger Games.
(massive spoilers ahead for Graceling and Fire!!!)
At age 18, Bitterblue is tasked with finding a way to help her kingdom recover from 35 years of atrocities committed by her father, who had the Grace of telling lies that people beleved, meaning he has the power to control anyone who hears him. He can stab your mother in front of you and tell you she just committed suicide and you will believe him. That's about the nicest thing he ever did. So the book takes place 8 years after he is gone (I won't tell you how) and Bitterblue is starting to realize that the recovery in her kingdom is not going as well as she has been led to believe. Secrets and coverups and mysteries are everywhere, and the book delves into questions of how someone copes with awakening to the realization that horrible things have been done to them, or that they have been the perpetrators of horrific acts. The main characters are complex and well thought out, and, depsite the considerable drop in bloodshed compared to the first two books, this book has a much faster pace to it. You want to know the truth as bad at Bitterblue does, and you share her horror as you find out it was even worse than you can imagine. These books remind me of a young adult version of the Game of Thrones series, but with happy endings. Just as many horrific events take place, but it is mostly alluded too here (the evicerations and rape happen away from the main story). The geography is also much easier to figure out, which means you can enjoy the story without an atlas.
There are two themes that run through all three books. The first is the presense of a well-rounded female character. We have three main characters throughout these books and all three of them are extremely complex. Bitterblue begins the story in a bit of a daze, her advisors keep her doing the most boring paperwork they can find so that she doesn't learn about the intricasies of her Kingdom. It's not a flattering start. We have an incurious woman who doesn't take much of an interest in rulling her kingdom because it's 'boring.' Through the course of the book though, we get to see her transformation into a powerful, but compassionate ruler. And while, yes, there is some romance in all three books, it's never easy or stupid. When Bitterblue develops feelings for someone, it is a hindrance to her more than some wild fulfilling of her life's wish. It's much closer to the way love actually works. Turns out, women can like a boy, but also have more important things to deal with right now, like why people keep turning up dead.
The other huge theme in all three books is the presents of an abusive and controlling father figure. In Graceling, Katsa is used as an enforcer/assassin for a tyrant king; in Fire, her father used is ability to control minds to horrific ends; and in Bitterblue, the spector of the mad king poisons everything. Each character is trying to overcome horrific emotional abuse by a father character. The scars of this abuse are so well written that it seems like the author is writing from some first hand knowledge, though that is purely speculation on my part. In my opinion, one of the most horrifying aspects of the mad king is that we see some evidence that he actually cared about his daughter, that he wanted to build a world that she could inherit and follow his example. It's twisted and evil, but is also comes from a place of tenderness, and as such, causes more pain. It's so much easier to hate the abuser when you can forget that abuse and love aren't mutually exclusive. The king is evil, he murdered his wife in front of bitterblue and there is evidence that he wanted to do horrible things to his daughter, and to see that some part of him cared for her adds a messiness to the emotions in the book that Bitterblue has to deal with. In deed, a similar relationship exists in all three books. It's a hard thing to deal with, and gives the reader much more to think about than many adult oriented novels. These books contain many layered themes that older readers will pick up on that may be missed by younger ones. It's a hard balance to find and Kristin Cashore excels at it.
So if you are looking for a some really brilliant fantasy writing, with kick ass female leads, you should really just check out this whole series.
10/10
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